“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” (Cree Proverb)

Question: Does this apply only when the last thing we had is destroyed? What until then?

Answer: Until then, you will consider that money is a universal equivalent and it can buy anything. And when there are no more birds, no fish, no water, nothing, then you will remain with your money.

There will be a great famine, as it is written, together with great abundance. This means that we will not be able to properly manage nature. Due to our hatred, it will behave in such a way that we will not be able to satiate ourselves.

Question: Will this affect a person directly? For example, I will have everything, yet I will be completely empty?

Answer: We already see this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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The people of Israel were formed from those people who felt that it is their duty to connect in order to attain the meaning of life and its purpose, the correction of creation and the upper force. That is why they called themselves Israel (Yashar-kel), which means “straight to the Creator.”

Abraham chose these people from all the inhabitants of Babylon, that is, from all the nations of the world at that time, and taught them the main principle of connection: love your neighbor as yourself.

In this way, they rose above egoism, which is constantly growing and swelling by leaps and bounds in human society. This growth is purposeful in order to ensure a sufficient gap between the huge egoism of humanity and the power of connection above egoism, which society is obliged to achieve.

When we reach a certain degree of confrontation between egoism and connection, then within it we begin to reveal the upper force, the upper world, and us belonging to the spiritual world.

The growing egoism serves as an engine that lifts us from this world to the spiritual one, from reception to bestowal, from hatred to love. If we follow the principles that “love will cover all crimes” and “everyone judges according to his own flaws,”then individually and together as a whole group, we will be able to reach such a strong connection together that the Creator will be revealed within it.

Over thousands of years, the group assembled by Abraham in Babylon has changed a lot. Part of it has disappeared, dissolved, in the nations of the world, and is yet to be revealed. There were many in the people of Israel who attained the degree of the Creator to the extent of their ability to overcome egoism and connect.

Over the years, the conditions changed, but the principle remained the same because the laws of the world are constant and unchangeable. We just need to study them and fulfill them in order to reach the corrected state.

Therefore, we need to study the process that the group of Abraham went through in history, since ” the deeds of the fathers will become a sign for the sons.” From this we will understand in which direction we are moving, what is happening to us, and what signs of the deeds of the fathers can be seen today since the eternal principle of love your neighbor as yourself, the law of unity, is always in action.

From the Ari onward, all Kabbalists were saying that we have entered the era of the Mashiach, that is, the time of the end of correction. There is one last stage of our development left, which can be quite long. As always, the nations of the world are applying pressure on the people of Israel, and this pressure is designed to force us to unite, at least through suffering.

Jews must draw conclusions from their history and connect and take an example from the fathers. Through this connection, we will almost immediately feel the fading of external pressure because of our correct reaction to it and our efforts to connect.

Therefore, all the wars that are arising against us will immediately subside, because we will begin to advance by ourselves, without external pressure. If we ourselves reveal the forces for advancement and rush forward, then those who impeded us instead will begin to help.

This will be the correct tendency, in agreement with the single upper force, that wants to see the entire humanity in such unity.

If we do not make efforts to advance toward unity, then to the extent of the lack of these efforts, the nations of the world and negative forces within the people of Israel themselves will rise up and start fighting, confrontation from all sides, in order to awaken us and force us to make the right conclusion—to understand the reason for this pressure and what we should do.

Today we are in a very delicate, acute state. I spoke about this danger many years ago, but I did not expect it to happen so quickly and that already in our time such a special state would develop between all countries and nations all over the world.

We are living in the era of new technologies and global communication and have reached a certain inner understanding of things that are happening: the responsibility of man for the Earth and the entire Universe.

Nowadays, there are many highly educated people with a broad view, not as it was before. Almost everyone has the opportunity to travel around the world and see the life of other nations and connect with the entire world above distances and differences in languages.

Yet in the matter of anti-Semitism, we see that nothing helps: the law that advances humanity to connection acts harshly, one might even say cruelly. First of all, it puts pressure on those who should be the first to lead humanity as one nation that is obliged to do this work, to become pioneers on this path, and to lead the entire world.

There is no way to bypass this law. The upper light, the upper forces, are organized in such a way that as soon as the people of Israel, a group gathered during the time of Abraham from all nations, unite again, all paths open up before it. There are no obstacles; on the contrary, there are forces of nature ready to help them and lift them to spiritual degrees on their shoulders. After this all of humanity will be happy to unite.

This is how the upper governance is arranged and this is how it will be. Everything depends on Israel, as Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, because only they have the freedom of choice.

Those who are aspiring to come closer to the Creator are called Israel. They feel obliged to bring themselves and all of humanity to a common connection and spiritual ascent. Any person in the world, of any nationality; black, white, red, or yellow; and all four layers in humanity; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th; belong to one nation, which is obliged to reach unity and adhesion with the Creator.

Therefore, all over the world pressure on this corporeal group called Israel is growing, although they do not understand what is happening to them. After all, they have long ago left this work of leading themselves and the entire world to the adhesion with the Creator. Humanity, too, has not received the knowledge that the world is undergoing a purposeful development that leads it to complete correction and therefore does not understand the reasons for its hatred.

The Jews are confused and perplexed about what they want from them, and because of the great egoism, they only dream of peace and prosperity. The nations of the world feel that the Jews are concealing and hiding something from them, and not allowing them to come to a good life.

That is why these two groups feel lost in the dark, where the aggression coming from the nations of the world bumps into the hatred and fear that the Jews feel.

It is clear that this does not benefit either of them: great suffering awaits both those who commit violence and those who are stubborn and do not want to hear about correction. Therefore, it is our duty to explain the situation to both, and to push the correction process forward as much as possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/20, ”The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism,” Chapter 1

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the three most important values we should teach our children?“

We should give our children knowledge about the world’s structure, about the fact that the world is an integral system, how people are interconnected and interdependent, and with such understanding, how we should behave accordingly.

When we understand the extent of our integrality, we should aim our attitudes and behaviors at no less than loving and caring about other people as we love and care about ourselves.

Such interrelations are necessary in order for us to enter into harmony and balance with nature. Otherwise, if we fail to achieve balance with nature, if we remain detached with no perception and sensation of ourselves as a single system, then we will evoke suffering upon ourselves.

Also, on the other side of the same coin, to the extent that we achieve harmony and balance with nature—a global and balanced unification with nature—we will achieve a safe, peaceful and harmonious life on a different spiritual, eternal and perfect level. It is because doing so elevates us from the animate physical level of existence, which we now feel, to the level of spiritual existence, which we will feel as soon as we start ascending from the level of negative egoistic connections to the level of positive altruistic connections.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: We know how the environment impacts a person. We women listen to the daily lesson every day and it is only about the work in the ten: exercises, the daily task, workshops, and gatherings of the tens. We try to implement everything we hear from our teacher.

You recently said that women don’t need to work on the unity between them. If that’s the case, why do we need to listen to the lesson, and especially to the first part that is about internal work and work in the tens? Wouldn’t it be better not to listen to the first part of the lesson in order to avoid confusion?

Answer: Because of their basic nature, women cannot participate in such activities equally as men because each woman is an individualist. The shattering of the vessel of the general soul of all nine Sefirot is the male part.

The shattering of Malchut is the female part. The shattering of Malchut is very hard, and women also understand how hard it is for them to connect. On the other hand, it is very easy for the men to connect compared to women. Men’s egoism is totally different from that of women’s. Men are like kids compared to women. It is very hard for a woman to do that.

This is the reason that women are not required to fulfill the serious demands that are required of men. I emphasize this so that it will not be an obstacle in our spiritual work. Women can do everything that men do, listen to lessons and try to do everything. Yet at the same time they should understand that it will work much more slowly and be more difficult. But getting closer to the Creator will be faster.

It isn’t about the same kind of work. After all, there are differences between men and women in our world. So it is impossible to compare the female perspectives of the world—her attitude, her feeling of the world, her attitude to the family, the kids, to everything that happens—to the male perspective. We cannot dwell inside each other. We are totally different creatures.

So although both men and women need to get closer to the Creator, including the common work between them, we need to pay attention to our gender attributes.

Question: To what extent do men need to listen to the advice and recommendations of women in their work in dissemination?

Answer: I believe that except for the spiritual work, women can do all the other kinds of work better than men. They should be given as many opportunities to participate in dissemination as possible.

It is best to give the part that is related to the spiritual work to the men, like lectures, etc. A and to let the women engage in dissemination.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/12/19

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We’re surprised that the virus in #Israel is ‘the worst’ while our methods of fighting it are “the best.” The reason is that nature (Creator) does this for our own correction, as upon our correction hinges the pandemic and the correction of the world as a whole. #COVID19

From Twitter, 9/21/21

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Question: It is said in the book of the Prophets that after Joshua entered the city of Ai with his army, all the citizens of the city were destroyed, as well as those soldiers who were lured out of the city. In total, 12,000 people were killed: husbands and wives.

Why is it said: “husbands and wives”? What does this mean?

Answer: We are talking about two lines. There are cities where you can destroy only the male population, and leave the female population, or destroy women and leave only virgins, and so on.

This means that in each case you can attach different quantities of egoism aimed at acting for the sake of bestowal to yourself and absorb them into yourself to use them correctly.

In this case, it is necessary to destroy both lines because the nation has only entered the land of Israel. It has not conquered anything yet; it has not subjugated anything to the quality of bestowal; it does not yet have a common screen. Therefore, for the time being, they must destroy the desire called the city of Ai and not use it at all.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/19/21

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Comment: Kabbalists believe that Yom Kippur is not mourning, not sorrow, but a very high spiritual degree like a celebration.

My Response: Of course it is a celebration; it is celebrating redemption. By scrutinizing my problems and asking for my own correction, I can correct my wrong actions. For example, I did not finish a certain thing, did something bad, etc.

Why should I cry? On the contrary, I should ask and be glad that I have the opportunity to turn to the Creator and get strength from Him to become better.

Question: The great Kabbalist of the 20th century, Baal HaSulam writes: “There is no happier state in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength.” When a person comes to a state that he has tried everything and has only one thing left, to somehow turn to the upper force that he does not know, is this considered a celebration, the most exalted state?

Answer: This is the best state because, thanks to this, he can turn to the upper force, and then it connects with him and does what he asks.

Question: It turns out that you can turn to the upper force only when there are problems?

Answer: How can you turn to it when you feel good? As a rule, people turn to the upper force when they feel bad. We are egoists; it is how we were created.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #4, “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels When Annulling Before the Creator in the Work?”

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparing to Attack at the Convention”

Writings of Baal HaSulam: “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 50

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 22/9/21

Tomorrow, Google will celebrate 23. In just 23 years, Google has managed to change the way we do so many things that the list is too long to remember. But perhaps Google’s first revolution was the way we gather information. It is with good reason that we tell people “Google it!” in order to find out something. You would think that making knowledge so accessible to everyone would make the world a better place, but reality has proven otherwise. Knowledge, we have learned the hard way, is not the same as wisdom.

Knowledge is the accumulation of information; wisdom is the ability to use it correctly, which is what really counts.

It is great that we can find all the information we need so quickly. However, although information is so easily accessible, we are not happier now than we were 23 years ago. By all accounts, we are more depressed, anxious, violent, and generally more miserable.

Why are we so miserable? We misuse the information that we gather with such ease. Without knowing how to use what we know correctly, the more we know, the more miserable we feel.

The benefit from Google’s success in making knowledge readily available is that it shows us what our world really looks like. It shows us what humans do to one another and to nature, and that humanity is only growing meaner and more vicious.

If we want to be happy, we must use this information wisely. What we know about ourselves must prompt us to seek to change ourselves, to change our very nature, which makes us harm each other so readily. We clearly cannot help ourselves.

Now it is time to shift to the next level of learning, to use what we know with wisdom and make our world a better place. To do that, we should not seek external changes, which will only distract us from the crux of the problem. No, we should look within, at our own motivations for the things we do and say.

Alone, we will not be able to change our nature from the nastiness within us and become caring and compassionate. Together, there is no end to what we can achieve. Indeed, if we support each other, we can even turn ourselves into completely different human beings: kind, caring, and connected.

Everything we learn from Google or from any other source should go toward improving ourselves. There is no other problem in the world but human nature. It is our own vile disposition that tells us to look elsewhere, but it’s a decoy; we should not be tempted. The sooner we learn it, the sooner we will know how to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom, and how to use knowledge wisely—for the common good, and for our own.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparing to Attack at the Convention”

Writings of Baal HaSulam: “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 48

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